Feline Inheritance
by willowmelodynoble
Summary: Harry recieves a rather unique inheritance on his 16th birthday.


Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and her associates. I'm just borrowing the characters. I'll put them back, but they might look a bit silly when I'm done.

Feline Inheritance 

On a very normal day, in a very normal house, in a very normal town, a not-so-normal boy sat on a bed. This boy was Harry Potter, resident of no. 4 Privet Drive, Surrey. The reason he was not-so-normal, and the reason his relatives disliked him, was that Harry Potter was a wizard. But even among wizards, Harry Potter was not quite normal. Harry had survived the Killing Curse as a child, due to his mother's no doubt ritual protection. He could also converse with snakes, a trait which should have made him unusually wise. Unfortunately, it made him unusually suspicious to the Wizarding public, as the last known Parselmouth, someone who spoke Parseltongue, the snake language, was Lord Voldemort . 

This was why, on the eve of his sixteenth birthday, Harry Potter was sitting in a small bedroom worrying about the magical inheritance his Uncle Remus had told him he would receive. Harry's unusual luck made him feel sure he would receive a very unusual inheritance, so he worried about being accepted by his best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Hermione Granger was Harry's bookish clever female best friend, and someone who Harry would trust with his life, at least now that they talked about issues before doing something rash. Hermione had breached Harry's trust only once, when she took his newly-received Firebolt to Professor McGonagall. She had gained back that trust several times, most notably when she assisted him in the Triwizard Tournament, a deadly competition Harry didn't know how he was forced to compete in. Ronald Weasley, on the other hand, was a brash redheaded wizard who often acted before he thought. Ron was Harry's first friend, and had stood by him many times, except when, in a fit of jealousy, he had separated himself from Harry in a time when he was needed most, the Triwizard Tournament. Ronald had since reunited with Harry, and stood by him, alongside Hermione and several of their other friends, in the Department of Mysteries. 

Harry's friends had contacted him little after the start of the summer holidays, saying that Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster, had ordered them not to tell Harry anything of importance. Harry found it odd that Hermione, a witch from a mundane background, had not called him on her mobile phone. Hermione's parents were what the Ministry of Magic called Muggles, which Harry found a rather derogatory term, and used only when in the presence of Magically raised wizards. He mused that perhaps she had lost her phone, or was staying at Grimmauld Place, his recently deceased Godfather's Ancestral Home, which was heavily warded against most technology, Magical and Mundane. 

Harry suddenly realised that the sun had set while he was worrying about his birthday. He decided to try and get some sleep, as thinking about what awaited him was only making time pass more slowly. As Harry fell asleep, his last conscious thought was 'I hope Hermione will be okay with this'. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Scene Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

As Harry slowly awoke the next morning, he initially didn't notice anything different. It was only when he reached a mirror that he realised the changes which had occurred to his body. He now had a pair of spotted feline ears atop his head, and his human ears had vanished. He also noticed a fine coating of fur over his body, spotted like his ears and tail. Wait, he had a tail too? Harry decided this was just too weird to think about standing up, and sat on his bed to contemplate what would happen next. Well, he now looked remarkably like some sort of humanoid cat, complete with whiskers and grooved tongue. He stretched his hands out, and noted claws to his list of things he would need to disguise. Currently that list read: _Tail, Ears, Fur, Whiskers, Claws,_ in order of noticeability. Maybe Hermione would know a disguise spell? Right, Hermione didn't know yet. 

Harry's new list read:

_Contact Hermione_

_Buy book on cats_

_Buy book on magical creatures_

_Visit Gringotts for information on inheritance, and money_

_Have robes altered to hide tail_

_Buy new trunk, like Moody's? – need to hide new books_

_Try to use magic _

Harry realised at this point that his wand was sparking oddly as he approached, and it burst into flames when he tried the spell _Winguardium Leviosa_. Alright, so he would need a new wand. Perhaps a custom-made wand would work better? He crossed out #7 _Use magic_ on his list, and added #8 _Find new wandmaker_, and #9 _Get new wand_. 

The list was getting longer, so Harry decided to go downstairs to speak to his Aunt and Uncle. They had been quite civil to him this summer, as Harry had asked for an arrangement between them. The new arrangement involved Harry setting up a mail-redirection ward to send owls directly to his room, and offering to help make Dudley's diet more palatable, as he actually enjoyed cooking nice food. This was in exchange for civil treatment, and Harry being allowed to set up a warded Floo in his bedroom in future, to avoid any confrontations. 

Harry also ended up bonding to Dobby and Winky the displaced house-elves, as they explained that they need to be bonded to a family or individual to survive. Dobby became sane, and Winky sober, after they linked to Harry. 

Petunia liked the mail-redirection ward, enjoyed the idea of a relatively wizard-free house, and welcomed the idea of house-elves once she got over their appearance. Dobby promised to be well behaved, and mentioned that he loved housework and cleaning. Winky offering to make Harry's room into a magically expanded apartment was something everyone enjoyed, Harry liking space and Petunia liking the idea of wizards staying out of her house without permission. They also got that Floo set up. It turned out that house-elf magic was undetectable by the Ministry, unless they made it visible like Dobby had done three years prior. 

Harry asked Winky to alert Petunia that he was looking … different. Winky popped in, and paused upon seeing Harry. 

AN: I couldn't figure out what to call Harry's new race, so I stopped writing, and I lost the thread of the story after that. I will likely try to tweak this into a new story. This was originally written in early 2013, and I only rediscovered it recently.


End file.
